Chapter 332: Civilization Originating from Mortals

"Er... what do we do now?!" Although she was well-accustomed to the burning, killing, and looting in *The Legend*, where people would fight over a single monster and clash at the slightest provocation, the current situation was somewhat different. Though she had no idea what these people did, they all seemed to be unarmed, ordinary civilians.

As for what the character she was controlling was supposed to be doing, she was also a bit at a loss.

"Boss, is this what you call a role-playing game?" Ruan Ning had clearly heard of the term from the players in Jiuhua City. In *The Legend*, the character controlled by the player represented "themselves," whereas in a role-playing game, the character controlled by the player was another person who possessed their own complete life.

In other words, it meant experiencing someone else's life.

"Why is it so strange?" She remembered that role-playing games were usually classics, such as *The Legend of Sword and Fairy* and *Resident Evil*, though they hadn't been released in this shop yet.

On the other side, after Daoist Xi Chi accidentally shot a hostage dead, she distinctly heard her teammate mutter a couple of swear words to himself before reminding her, "Detonate the explosives!"

Evidently, this served as a tutorial level, and a prompt appeared on the game interface once more: "Please use the mobile phone to detonate the explosives."

Pulling a mobile phone from her pocket, she saw a contact labeled "Detonate" inside. After dialing the number...

The detonation device for the explosives outside the bank vault door was quickly activated.

Subsequently, several of them followed their teammates into the vault and bagged hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"???" Why did this game feel more and more off the longer they played?

"Yun'er..." Daoist Xi Chi opened the external communication channel while playing and called out, "Why does this world feel even stranger than *Harry Potter*?"

"Does it?" Liu Ningyun said, leaning over to shoot a guard dead with the gun in her hand. "I feel the same way. Are they robbing the place? They've even shot several guards dead."

Watching from behind, Ning Bi remarked, "Little girl, aren't you shooting them too?"

"If I don't shoot, I'll die!" Liu Ningyun, controlling Michael, hid in a corner and shouted, "Oh my, so many of them are coming! What is going on with this game?!"

Clearly, she was still quite confused about the situation, only remembering that a mention of nine years ago had been made earlier, meaning this was very likely a memory belonging to one of the characters.

"Why are the weapons in this Muggle world so powerful?" Ruan Ning muttered to herself as she already charged out. Seeing the submachine gun in her hand spraying fire, she burst into a fit of wild laughter. "Hahaha! This weapon is so much fun to use! This old lady is about to blast her way out!"

"This girl is almost out already...?" Liu Ningyun also hurriedly put in more effort. Since this was a memory to begin with, nothing she did could alter the established events, so she simply followed the instructions.

Though her marksmanship was a bit stiff, fortunately, her teammates were competent, and the plot continued to advance steadily.

It was glaringly obvious now that this was a bank robbery, and the characters they played were precisely the bandits involved. However, their plan was clearly not very successful; someone had tipped off the authorities, and a massive fleet of police cars was rushing to the scene.

After the tutorial ended, with some dead and others wounded, only two people were left in the end—who happened to be two of the three main protagonists of this title, Michael and Trevor.

Seeing Michael pretend to be shot and stay behind, those watching the scene pretty much understood who the informant was.

This concluded the entirety of the memory.

The offline portion of GTA5 was almost equivalent to an American cinematic movie that one could personally control. Nine years later, Michael had clearly gained immense benefits from that tip-off, while Trevor had taken a hostage and escaped. How the story would unfold next was highly anticipated.

At this moment, players would receive two choices: one was to continue the offline mode, while the other option was to select the online mode and play with other players over the network.

Taking off her virtual reality headset, Daoist Xi Chi found it was her first time playing a game with such a background. Leaving her terrible marksmanship aside for the moment, too many questions had accumulated in her mind instead.

Regarding firearms, the worldview, and other aspects, Owner Fang naturally explained them one by one.

"You mean to say that the purpose of this role-playing game is to experience another person's life from your own perspective?" Daoist Xi Chi asked in astonishment. "Is it similar to reincarnation, or tempering one's heart in the mortal world?"

"Reincarnation and tempering one's heart in the mortal world require passing through the amnesia of the womb and all sorts of earthly tribulations," Ning Bi said, her eyes fixed intently on the screen. "But in this game, you can quit whenever you want. And... that thing the owner calls technology...? Is the Great Jin Kingdom truly researching it already?"

"Boss, can you really do whatever you want in this game?" Even the Black Demon, who had originally intended to get on a machine to play *The Legend*, looked over.

"..." Liu Ningyun gave Fang Qi a fierce glare. Although people snatched treasures and killed others everywhere in *The Legend*, the general direction and values were still acceptable.

But this one... why did it feel like every single one of them was a vicious thug?

"Are we supposed to experience the life of such people?" Liu Ningyun was clearly very displeased. As the Heavenly Maiden of Nanhua, how could she do such deeds?

Furthermore, she felt as if she had just participated in a robbery.

Just then, they suddenly heard an exclamation from Ruan Ning: "How come it's turned into myself now? And I can even adjust my appearance? Isn't this a role-playing game?"

Fang Qi explained, "Now you can choose between the online mode or the offline mode. You've already seen the content of the offline mode just now, whereas in the online mode, you enter this world as yourself. As for what you want to do afterward, it's entirely up to you."

"Oh...?" The look of disdain on Liu Ningyun's face instantly vanished. "This works!"

And at this moment, Ruan Ning's game screen had only just loaded.

Displayed on the screen, looking down from a high altitude, was an unimaginably massive city stretching out before them. At a single glance, it seemed many times larger than any great city they had ever seen, appearing virtually boundless.

Skyscraper after skyscraper stood tall, seemingly piercing into the clouds. Amidst the glow of the setting sun, helicopters flew above the city, and on the incredibly wide highways, all kinds of vehicles speeded along in an orderly fashion. Along the coast stood rows of luxurious mansions and villas with coconut trees planted in their front yards, and in the distance lay the azure sea. Compared to the rural countryside, it offered an entirely different kind of extravagant scenery.

In fact, they had already caught a glimpse of the modern world in *Harry Potter* before, but this place was evidently much cleaner, tidier, and far more advanced and modernized than what they had seen previously.

If watching *Harry Potter* before had made them find those ignorant and powerless mortals living under the same sky laughable, then now, what they beheld was the grand civilization created by these ordinary people—people who possessed no talent in their eyes and were looked down upon as "Muggles" in *Harry Potter*!

Inside the magnificent and grand car dealerships stood all kinds of exquisite luxury cars filled with a metallic and modern texture. The wealthy engaged in various activities such as golf and tennis. In the sky, massive, snow-white passenger planes streaked past, and through the cabin windows, one could even see all sorts of people sitting in an orderly manner inside.

As the entire world unfolded before them like a gargantuan scroll, a strange sense of awe quietly arose from the depths of their hearts.

This was a world created by the mortals in their eyes.

Dharma boats? They had airplanes.

Spirit beast carriages? They had automobiles.

Not to mention all kinds of ingenious and peculiar weapons.

Even though these were mere mortals, the women felt a deep, heartfelt realization that this was a civilization not in the least inferior to their own.